It’s time for another edition of Family Fun Friday! I’ve been having a blast checking out everyone’s posts, so be sure to keep linking up. I’m always on the hunt for new posts to feature. š This week, I really appreciated some of the fun ways to learn at home!
How to Keep a Homeschool Tantrum from Derailing Your School Day
Homeschooling moms have the dual challenge of serving as parents AND teachers during the day, which means we often have to deal with a homeschool tantrum or two on occasion. Yay! Not.
When a child throws a temper tantrum, it can disrupt the entire school day. And if you’re homeschooling more than one child, it can distract the other kids from their lessons, make you angry, and throw off your whole schedule for the week. Since we’re homeschooling children with ADHD, it’s essential that we stick to our regular school schedule, so I just cannot afford to have the school day disrupted by a temper tantrum.
Today, I thought I’d share a few of the things that have worked for us in keeping a homeschool tantrum at bay. I’ll also be including a few things that did NOT work, just for comparison. š
Image Ā©Ā fasphotographicĀ / Dollar Photo Club
Tips for Dealing with a Homeschool Tantrum
- Find out what’s wrong.Ā Before you even attempt to handle the tantrum, try to learnĀ why your child is upset. Trust me, this can be difficult. Especially if they’re screaming incoherently at the time. Is your child frustrated because he can’t understand a concept? Is she feeling overwhelmed? Ask your child what’s wrong and then try to listen patiently as he explains.
What does NOT work: Shouting at your child to “Be quiet!”
- Establish a regular schedule.Ā Pooh, our oldest boy, is extremely cranky in the mornings. He tends to sleep restlessly and he frequently has night terrors. As a result, he really needs time to wake up at his own pace without being rushed. So, we decided to begin school a bit later in the day to avoid making him concentrate at an early hour. Before I realized that was a problem, he had tantrums almost every day. When we stick with the schedule, though, he rests better and he behaves better.
What does NOT work: Beginning school at a different time eachĀ morning
- Keep right on teaching.Ā This one is probably the most important. No matter what you do, continue with your lesson plan to the extent you possibly can. Naturally, if you have a kicking and screaming child in your school room, you may have to stop to remove him or her to a safe place. (I’ve had to do that on occasion.) But, if you drop your lesson plan completely, you’ve just told your child that he or she can make school “stop” by throwing a fit. OnceĀ you send that message, you’ll have a hard time teaching every day afterward.
What does NOT work: Stopping your lesson for that day
When I follow these three tips, temper tantrums in our family becomeĀ minor hiccups instead of major obstacles. How do you handle homeschool tantrums? Do you have any suggestions for how to manage temper tantrums while homeschooling? Let us know in the comments!
Don’t miss these other parenting and homeschooling posts!
Get more parenting tips on my Parenting with Joy board on Pinterest!
STEM for Homeschoolers: Decomposition Lesson Ideas for Kids
As I mentioned earlier this year, we’ve made a bit of a homeschooling U-turn in our family and started focusing more on STEM subjects and foreign language.
So – we’ll be sharing more science lessons and experiments on the blog, along with resources we find online that we love for learning STEM concepts. Today we’re sharing a recent activity using decomposition lesson ideasĀ for kids!
Decomposition Lesson Ideas for Kids
This was NOT one of our planned lessons. A banana in our fruit bowl began to rot and the kids were fascinated by it. So I decided to let it rot so we could examine decomposition up close.
The amazing thing about kids is that they are fascinated by gross stuff. They wanted to see the rotting banana up close. So we got out a plastic fork and poked around.
That gave us a really close look at the bacteria growing inside the fruit.
Yuck.
That face says it all. But then we learned about the process of decomposition and how amazing it is! First, we watched a clip from Sid the Science Kid showing a lab experiment about decomposition.
Michigan Tech University has a great explanation of what happens during the process of decomposition. Basically, bacteria, fungi, and worms perform the work of decomposition by breaking down living organisms after death. This is a GOOD thing, because the broken down organisms become part of the soil and provide a natural fertilizer so that new things can grow. It’s the ultimate recycling!
To get an even closer look at decomposition, check out this video of a watermelon slowly decomposing over 35 days.
Activities about Decomposition:
- Free Decomposing Worksheets for Grades 5-6: Great Schools
- Decomposing Experiment – Education.com
- Biology for Kids: An Overview of Fungi – Ducksters
- Easy Decomposition Experiment – Science Sparks
Books about Decomposition for Kids:
- Insects as Decomposers by Lyn Sirota
- Composting: Nature’s Recyclers by Robin Koontz
- Compost Stew: An A to Z Recipe for the Earth by Mary McKenna Siddals
- What’s Sprouting in My Trash? A Book about Composting by Esther Porter
- The Magic School Bus Meets the Rot Squad: A Book about Decomposition by Joanna Cole
- Decomposers (Science Kaleidoscope) by Greg Roza
If you enjoyed these decomposition lesson ideas, stop by and see some of our other unit studies!
Plus, follow my It’s ScienceĀ Pinterest board for more hands-on science fun!
Free Printable Flashcards: Spanish Days of the Week Flashcards
We’re continuing with our Spanish learning with this pack of free printable flashcards for learning the Spanish days of the week! We’ve already covered days of the week in English, so it’s adelante a espaƱol (on to Spanish)!
I love teaching Spanish to my kids. It helps them to converse with others, learn more about another culture, and even broadens their understanding of English! (There are several English terms that are heavily influenced by words from Latin languages, including Spanish, French, and Italian.)
If you enjoy these Spanish days of the week flashcards, don’t miss our other Spanish learning resources, including our Spanish community helpers printable pack and our Spanish alphabet mega-pack!
Spanish Days of the Week Flashcards
To use these flashcards, you’ll need the following:
- Printer (with ink)
- Printer paper
- Scissors
- Laminator (if you want to reuse the cards later)
In the pack, you’ll find flashcards for each day in both English and Spanish:
Monday – lunes
Tuesday – martes
Wednesday –Ā miĆ©rcoles
Thursday – jueves
Friday – viernes
Saturday – sĆ”bado
Sunday – domingo
Don’t know how to say those words in Spanish? No worries! The flashcard set has a pronunciation guide too. š
Stop by Year Round Homeschooling to grab “Ā”Los DĆas de la Semana!ĀØFree Printable Flashcards: Spanish Days of the Week!
And don’t forget to grab our other free Spanish flashcards for learning opposite words and for learning Spanish food words!
Read “Learning the Days of the Week in Spanish” at Year Round Homeschooling
Want more awesome resources for teaching Spanish to your kids? Try these posts!
Plus, get more tips for teaching foreign languages to your kids on my Foreign Language for Homeschoolers Pinterest board!
ASL Lesson 8: ASL Weather Signs
In keeping with the change of seasons, we’re sharing an American Sign Language lesson today that covers ASL weather signs! The video lesson also includes a primer on how to sign the seasons in ASL.
Learning to sign about the weather can really help you hold a conversation with a deaf or hard-of-hearing individual. After all, who doesn’t talk about the weather? And deaf people are no exception. Talking about the weather in your area is a wonderful icebreaker when you’re first getting to know someone who signs.
For more ASL practice, grab our set of free Weather ASL Fingerspelling Pages!
How to UseĀ ASL Weather Signs
In this video, you’ll learn the signs for:
- Spring
- Summer
- Fall
- Winter
- Weather
- Rain
- Flood
- Ice
- Snow
- Storm
- Lightning
- Wind
- Hurricane
- Tornado
As you watch the video, you might see that facial expression and intensity play a huge role in the signs. For example, the sign “wind” changes in meaning, depending on how hard you sign it. It can mean a gentle breeze or it can mean a strong gust.
The same is true of “rain”. If you sign it softly, it means a shower. But if you sign it strongly, it can mean a storm or a downpour. Signing with intensity is the ASL equivalent of raising your voice. š
Scroll down to watch the full lesson below! And don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel to see all of our videos as they become available!
Don’t miss these other ASL learning resources!
Watch the ASL Weather Signs lesson here!
And see more tips for learning ASL on my Sign Language Lessons Pinterest board!
Pumpkin Spice Latte No Cook Playdough
Hey everyone! It’s time for our 12 Months of Sensory Dough linkup! Every month, I’m honored to co-host this linky with 11 other bloggers, including Dayna atĀ Lemon Lime Adventures, Val & Alex atĀ Glittering Muffins, Devany atĀ Still Playing School, Sarah atĀ Little Bins for Little Hands, Kimberly atĀ Natural Beach Living, Melissa Ann atĀ The Eyes of a Boy, Nicolette atĀ Powerful Mothering, Amy atĀ Wildflower Ramblings, Rachel atĀ I Heart Crafty Things, Michelle atĀ Delightful Learning, and Jennifer at The Life of Jennifer Dawn!
Fall is in the air! We’ve been enjoying our sensory dough this year and I thought “Why not make a fall sensory dough?” What says fall? Pumpkin Spice Lattes!
French Language Learning with Mango Languages!
Bonjour! We’ve just begun learning French with the kids with Mango Languages! I recently got the chance to try the program, and the kids are already asking when we can takeĀ more lessons. That’s always a good sign, right?
Mango Languages offers more than 60 languages and dialects for students, including Spanish, French, and even Ancient Greek! We settled on French, but the kids were excited to see that we could learn just about any language!
Educational Crafts for Kids with Family Fun Friday!
It’s time for another edition of Family Fun Friday! On behalf of my co-hosts, I want to say thanks for visiting and linking up last week! We had a blast featuring our favorite homeschool curriculum options from the linky, and this week we’re sharing some great educational crafts for kids!
Keep reading to learn about our wonderful co-hosts, see my favorite features from last week, and share your own posts!
Why Homeschooling Little Ones is Easier Than Homeschooling Teens
We’ve got four learners in our house under the age of 10, so we’re right in the middle of homeschooling little ones. As all of my mama readers know, when you have kids, there are lots of great days, a good amount of okay days, and a fair amount of rough days.
It’s important that we take a break to focus on what we have so we can appreciate it before it’s gone. I know that these days with my kids won’t last forever, so it’s up to me to value them NOW, rather than later.
Weird Science Facts for Kids with Ripley’s Reality Shock!
Do your kids like to learn about weird science facts? Ours do! Especially since they tend to lose interest in a structured science lesson. š
We got the chance to visit Ripley’s Believe It or Not! in Orlando, Florida when Tigger was very young, but we haven’t been able to get back since. We did, however, get the opportunity to learn some of Ripley’s signature weird science facts right in our own home!
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